Q&A time with AMD's Roy Taylor

We had a call organized with AMD's Corporate Vice President of Global Channel Sales, Roy Taylor, about their response to NVIDIA's launch of their second-generation Maxwell GPUs - the GeForce GTX 980 and GTX 970 - but after reorganizing, we shot over some questions to Roy so that he could answer them.

There were a few things that I wanted to ask Roy, whether these new price cuts on the high-end Radeon cards were working against the onslaught of kick-ass new cards from NVIDIA, and whether we'll see any more price cuts in the future. I also threw in some cheeky questions, because well, I wanted to.

Our question: With the recent price drops on the Radeon R9 series, how do you think this better positions AMD against NVIDIA's recently released GeForce GTX 900 series GPUs?

Roy's response: It's important to emphasize that the new prices you see online are due to promotions and programs being run in the channel - AMD did not make an official price move. If we look at where pricing is now, you can buy a Radeon R9 290X with its 512-bit memory bus starting at $369 and R9 290 for $299, for anyone who buys with an eye to the future that 512-bit BUS, Mantle and DX 12 compatibility are great value.

Q: Can we expect any more price drops on the Radeon R9 series before the holidays?

A: With the new R9 285 at $259 and the R9 280 at $209, it would be hard to imagine a better bargain than we have already. Readers should look at the latest benchmarks and realize just how good these are.

Q: How has the response from retailers and consumers been since the price drop was initiated?

A: The reaction has been wonderful and consumers are definitely seeing the value in having 512-bit BUS parts at the top end so competitively priced. We are active on social media and engage openly with users who have praised the new prices.

Q: Is it true that it's the AIBs that are the ones taking the hit on the price drops, and not AMD? To better clarify: is AMD reducing the price, or your partners?

A: We are friends and partners with each of the AIB's and have worked extremely closely with them. This includes the recent moves, whatever we or they do, it is part of a collaborative effort.

Q: When can we begin to hear more about the Radeon R9 300 series, and more specifically, the R9 390X?

A: Unfortunately, I'm unable to comment on future, unannounced products at this time.

Q: Will the R9 390X beat the GeForce GTX 980 not just in performance, but power efficiency and heat?

A: Unfortunately, I'm unable to comment on future, unannounced products at this time.

Q: Is AMD working with DICE on Battlefield 5, with a tight partnership that we saw in Battlefield 4?

A: I'm unable to comment on any future projects DICE may have on the go without their consent, but suffice to say that DICE is a strategic partner for AMD, and we absolutely intend to keep this fruitful partnership going. As you know, DICE is the developer of the hugely successful Frostbite engine that is and will be powering a lot of today's and tomorrow's games, with a visual fidelity that is very hard to match right now.

Wrapping Things Up

So, there we have it, a semi confirmation that the Radeon R9 390X is coming, but Roy couldn't comment on future "announced" products. He didn't say they weren't working on it, he just said he couldn't talk about it.

When pressed about Battlefield 5, he of course couldn't say anything, but we can see that AMD is still partnered with DICE. This should result in some increased Mantle performance in DICE's next first-person shooter, something I'm excited to see. We're seeing an increased minimum frame rate under Mantle, something that first-person shooters like Battlefield really benefit from.

We were also able to see that AMD are seeing value in their high-end parts, with some consumers still panting over that 512-bit memory bus that AMD has, over the 256-bit memory bus even on NVIDIA's new GeForce GTX 980.

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